Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894)
|birth_year=1818 |birth_month=10 |birth_day=22 |birth_locality=Saint-Paul, Réunion |birth_county=Réunion |birth_nation=France |death_year=1894 |death_month=7 |death_day=17 |death_locality=Voisins (Louveciennes) |death_county=Yvelines |death_nation-subdiv1=Île-de-France |death_nation=France |wedding1_year=1857 |wedding1_month=9 |wedding1_day=10 |wedding1_locality=Paris |wedding1_nation=France |globals= }} Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (22 October 1818 – 17 July 1894) was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle''. Biography Leconte de Lisle was born on the French overseas island of La Réunion, in the Indian Ocean. He spent his childhood there and later in Brittany. Among his friends in those years was the musician Charles Bénézit.French Global: A New Approach to Literary History - Page 123 Christie McDonald, Susan Rubin Suleiman - 2011 "Even Leconte de Lisle, who travelled back and forth between Brittany and Reunion Island throughout his youth and knew firsthand about ... His father, an army surgeon, who brought him up with great severity, sent him to travel in the East Indies with a view to preparing him for a business career. However, after returning from this journey, the young man preferred to complete his education in Rennes, Brittany, specializing in Greek, Italian and history. In 1845 he settled definitively in Paris.Jean Mistler Speech at the Bibliothèque nationale- He was involved in the French Revolution of 1848 which ended with the overthrow of the Orleans King Louis-Philppe of France, but took no further part in politics after the Second Republic was declared. As a writer he is most famous for his three collections of poetry: Poèmes antiques (1852), Poèmes barbares (1862), Poèmes tragiques (1884). He is also known for his translations of Ancient Greek tragedians and poets, such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Horace. .Homère, les tragiques grecs (Eschyle, Sophocle, Euripide), Hésiode, Théocrite, Biôn, Moskhos, Tyrtée, Horace, etc. Leconte de Lisle played a leading role in the Parnassian poetic movement (1866) and shared many of the values of other poets of this generation, bridging the Romantic and Symbolist periods. Although Leconte de Lisle was a fervent Republican, during the reign of Napoleon III he accepted the pensions and decorations offered to him by the Emperor. This was held against him after the fall of the Second Empire and its replacement by the Third Republic, in 1871 . However, Leconte de Lisle redeemed himself with the new government by writing two democratically-oriented books entitled A People's History of the French Revolution and A People's History of Christianity, respectively. These works earned him a post as Assistant Librarian at the Luxembourg Palace in 1873; in 1886 he was elected to the French Academy, in succession to Victor Hugo. Leconte de Lisle died at Voisins in the township of Louveciennes, to the west of Paris, on July 17, 1894. Bibliography Poetry List of works As well as poetry, Leconte de Lisle produced a number of theatrical plays, lyrical works, translations, and historical works. His works are shown below, in chronological order. Notes References *J. Dornis, Leconte de Lisle intime (1895) *F. Calmette, Un Demi siècle littéraire, Leconte de Lisle et ses amis (1902) *Paul Bourget, Nouveaux essais de psychologie contemporaine (1885) *Ferdinand Brunetière, L'Évolution de la poésie lyrique en France au XIX" siècle (1894) *Maurice Spronck, Les Artistes littéraires (1889) *Jules Lemaître, Les Contemporains (2nd series, 1886) *F. Brunetière, Nouveaux essais sur la littérature contemporaine (1895) *Complete poetry work of Leconte de Lisle External links * * * __SHOWFACTBOX__ Category:Married in 1857 Category:Married in Paris Category:Members of the Académie française Category:French poets Category:Prince des poètes Category:Writers from Réunion Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Category:People of French descent from Réunion Category:Alumni of the University of Rennes Category:French male poets Category:19th-century poets Category:19th-century male writers Category:Translators of Ancient Greek texts Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit